


Adventures in (Banana) Sitting

by Lanihaluki



Category: Story Thieves Series - James Riley
Genre: Babysitting, F/F, babysitting au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28474260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanihaluki/pseuds/Lanihaluki
Summary: Bethany is hoping to spend the afternoon in Jupiter City, fighting crime, locking up supervillains, and taking a much-needed break from school. But life, as always, has other plans.For the Story Thieves Gift Exchange.
Relationships: Gwen/Bethany Sanderson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	Adventures in (Banana) Sitting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NorskyPuppy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorskyPuppy/gifts).



> Hey Mina!! life got super hectic so I wasn't able to post this until 2021, but guess you could say I was a year late for this? haha
> 
> For the prompt, I chose your third request where a ship does babysitting :) hope you enjoy!!

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Rain pattered against the roof of the Twilight Cave, softly at first, then transforming into a steady downpour. All day, the signs had been there. By the time the afternoon rolled around, the clouds had practically turned black, hovering over Jupiter City like a dark, ominous shadow — almost dark enough to make it seem like the Dark himself had still taken over Jupiter City again. Luckily, Bethany’s father was very much normal right now, as Bethany hadn’t gotten any distress calls from her Twilight radio.

Usually on the weekends or after school, Bethany and her family would head to Jupiter City for an overnight stay — or at least a few hours — of fighting crime. Orion, though, got to Jupiter City way more than she did — mainly because while he’d moved in with the Sanderson’s (after a _lot_ of convincing), he didn’t have to go to school like Bethany did. At least, not for _now._ That meant ninety-percent of the time, he and Bethany’s dad were here, getting to spend all day fighting crime and locking up supervillains.

So while Bethany begrudgingly spent her days mulling over textbooks and itching to jump into worlds, Orion got the better half of the deal. Probably because he’d been Doc Twilight’s sidekick for longer, or whatever stupid reason like that. For even more reasons, she couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when her mother finally enrolled him into school. _That_ would teach him.

For now, the Twilight Cave was empty — empty except for Bethany and Gwen, who often liked coming to Jupiter City for their missions. So did her other friends— mainly Kiel and Owen and Kara, but it wasn’t like she took them _too_ often. Besides, since Bethany had come here straight from school — neglecting to do her very boring-looking math homework — she had a feeling Owen would’ve been too busy anyway. Working at the library all night while having math homework to do . . . didn’t sound so freeing to Bethany.

Instead, she’d asked Gwen if she wanted to come along, since she loved hanging out in Jupiter City anyway. _And_ around Orion, though the sidekick liked to pretend he didn’t care much when Gwen was around, even though Bethany knew he really did. Out of all their friends, Orion probably liked Gwen the most, which made it the easiest to bring her along on their missions. Having Gwen around always made things more fun, anyway. Even in her presence, Bethany had no trouble feeling more optimistic.

. . . Except for now.

This afternoon, she’d had a plan. A plan that involved crime-fighting, and hopefully locking up supervillains . . . but the thing was, it was raining so hard that even _spotting_ criminals would be difficult. Many things were difficult to do in a rainstorm. For one, walking around without getting your clothes soaked, which proved to be annoying, especially when you couldn’t exactly whip out an umbrella during a mission. Another was hitting the right target when trying to toss a throwing star.

Among those things, maybe the least enjoyable thing to do in the rain was actually try to stop crime. The only person Bethany knew who actually _liked_ searching for crime in the rain was Orion. Then again, he liked walking in the rain in general. Usually, Bethany did too. But not when the weather was _this_ bad. It was harder to see and harder to catch the criminals, especially if the fight wasn’t inside. There didn’t seem to be any crime nearby, either. Apparently, even the _criminals_ didn’t feel like committing crimes in a storm like this.

So Christian had suggested they stay in the Twilight Cave for now . . . at least until the rain stopped. And Bethany was bored out of her mind. Her father had left a while ago for some meeting with the Lawful Legion, leaving Bethany, Gwen, and Orion alone in the Twilight Cave. And then, after Gwen had suggested they all play a game to pass the time, Orion had quickly excused himself from the conversation, pretending to be very interested in a star chart he’d gotten from his parents’ collection of things. Typical.

Since Bethany’s father had made them promise to stay in the Twilight Cave until he got back, Orion had headed as far as seemingly possible, choosing to sit up in the rafters instead of sitting on the floor like a normal person. Or in Bethany and Gwen case, the couch. With nothing else to do, Bethany had agreed to play some kind of a game with her friend, while only half-believing they’d actually have a game in here. Somehow, they did.

It was a board game— one that clearly had been bought in Jupiter City, because all of the players were superheroes. In a way, it was like chutes and ladders. The goal was to get the superhero to the other side of the path— assuming they didn’t get sent to a different place on the board, or get attacked by a group of supervillains, or lose their powers until the next turn.

As always, Gwen was the most excited by the game, which didn’t suprise Bethany at all. A bright smile danced across her face, and she threw out words of encouragement whenever Bethany was ahead of her, or when she seemed to be losing. Which unfortunately, was happening too often. Bethany, on the other hand, was becoming more frustrated by the second. Despite the game being in the Twilight Cave, she’d never played it. Or even had known it _existed_ , until Orion pointed it out. If Bethany could guess, her father had forgotten it was here, too.

And somehow, despite Gwen never playing it either, she was doing a hundred times better than Bethany. It didn’t help that every time she made a wrong turn, she caught Orion snickering quietly from above. He barely said anything, but she could practically _feel_ his judgement from here. It took all Bethany’s willpower not to climb up there and strangle him — maybe even drop him into some horror book — but retrained herself since Gwen was there. It was a little easier to _not_ let her emotions get the better of her with EarthGirl around.

And then, just as Gwen rolled the dice to play her turn, there was a loud noise from above. And it wasn’t from the rain.

Both of the girls stopped for a moment, eyes hovering on the ceiling, waiting for another noise. Probably just a rumble of thunder. But when nothing else happened, they both turned back to the game. Gwen eagerly grabbed her dice. “Oh! I rolled a—“

The noise happened again, louder this time. There was no denying it, it was _definitely_ coming from the entrance of the cave. The very secret entrance that kept itself hidden from visitors to the Jupiter Hill Observatory. The only people who really knew how to get in here were Bethany’s family, or any of Bethany’s friends . . . not that they just started banging loudly on the wall. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t normal. 

Bethany swallowed hard, glancing over to meet Gwen’s eyes. “Did you hear that?”

Gwen nodded. “Yeah, I wonder what that could be. Is your dad back?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He would’ve called us on the radio by now to let us know he was coming back.”

Another noise, even louder this time. The sound was definitely coming from the entrance of the Twilight Cave. Either someone was trying to break in, or they were just destroying the whole observatory upstairs. Either way, it wasn’t really a settling thought. Jumping to her feet, Bethany started her way over to the stairs. “I’m gonna see who it is.”

“Okay! Let me know if you need me!” Gwen replied cheerfully, not moving from where she was sitting. In spite of herself, Bethany smiled. Only for it to vanish as Orion finally seemed to notice what was going on, and leapt from the rafters, his cape billowing around him as he landed. Landed _right_ in front of Bethany, blocking her path to the stairs.

“What are you _doing_?” he hissed. “We can’t just let anyone in here.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not! I’m just seeing who it is.”

“Well whoever it is, they should know how to open the secret entrance.” He gave her a long look. “Like if it’s one of your friends.”

“ _Our_ friends.”

He just stared at her, not responding. Bethany sighed. “Okay, well I don’t think it’s them. I mean, out of everyone Charm probably comes here the least, but even _she_ knows how to open the secret entrance. All of our friends do.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t expect Kiel to remember. But fine. So it might be no one we know.” He shrugged. “Then I know what to do. We just won’t answer.”

At that, Gwen’s eyes widened. She pushed herself to her feet. “No, we _should_ answer! What if they need our help?”

“Why would they need help?” From behind the purple mask, his eyes narrowed. “This could just be a ploy to get us to reveal our secret hideout, Gwen! Even _you_ know about the importance of secret identities.”

“ _Or_ they could really use our help!” She smiled brightly. “Or maybe they want your guys’ autographs.”

Simultaneously, Bethany and Orion made a face. At least _that_ , they were in agreement with. Autographs weren’t really their favorite thing. Sure, Bethany thought it was cool when someone asked for Twilight Girl’s autograph — under the circumstance they didn’t accidentally call her “Kid Twilight” first, which always made her a little angry. But as someone who wasn’t used to so much attention, and didn’t always prefer it, signing hundreds of autographs in a crowd just . . . made her stomach do somersaults. And not the good kind.

From experience, she knew that Orion was that way too — maybe even _more so._ He was even less of a people person than Bethany was, and wasn’t exactly . . . the friendliest person in the world. Out of all of the Twilight’s, Christian was definitely the one who enjoyed getting autographs the most. Bethany was just grateful she wasn’t the daughter of Captain Sunshine. That guy probably had the most fans in Jupiter City, and was asked _constantly_ for autographs. Probably because he could shoot bright white lasers from his eyes, could fly, and was indestructible.

Orion shook his head. “No one else knows where our hideout is located. Couldn’t be any . . .” He made another weird face. “Fans.”

A thought struck Bethany, one she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of before. _Wait a minute._ Weren’t there security cameras somewhere around here? Yes, there _were_. Of course there were! She’d definitely seen them somewhere around here, even if she’d never bothered to look at the footage. But they’d come in handy now. And once she found it, they’d be able to tell who — or _what_ — was trying to get into their hideout. _Before_ Orion could. She bit back a grin.

“Wait,” Bethany breathed. “I have an idea!”

Turning on her heel, she sprinted back to the giant computer on the wall, then reached out and pushed one of the buttons, like she’d seen her father so many times before. The entire system hummed to life, and the largest monitor Bethany had ever seen lit up. The screen itself, though, was blank. A frown spread across her face. Nothing was happening. Was there another button she had to push to find the security footage?

She was about slam her hand onto one of them, hoping it might get the computer to show what she wanted, only for a monotone voice to erupt from the computer’s speakers. “Awaiting voice command. Unless you don’t actually need me and just like messing up my computer.”

Huh. The computer was sarcastic. Now that she thought about it, it sounded a _lot_ like Orion. Aside from all the _we’re all doomed!_ speeches. The thought almost made her chuckle, but she quickly stifled it down, knowing she should focus on her task.

“I want to see what’s happening outside our secret entrance,” Bethany said, just as Orion and Gwen caught up with her. All of the sudden, several light beams scanned over Bethany, making her flinch a little. In a few seconds, the light dimmed completely. Blinded for a moment, she blinked the sunspots away. Ugh. Couldn’t there have been a less blinding way to confirm her voice recognition?

“Voice and facial recognition acknowledged,” the computer said, a green light brightening the computer. “You’re welcome, and I didn’t hear a thank you.”

Her brow furrowed. “Um, thank you?”

“Too late.”

Before Bethany could say or do anything else, a black-and-white video appeared on the screen. The three kids peered closer at it, leaning towards the computer to get a better look. Not that they really needed to, given how big the computer was. The image was slightly grainy, just like the security camera footage Bethany had seen play out in movies. She would’ve thought that being in a comic book prevent any of the graininess, but apparently not. So much for any of that weird comic book logic, which was filled with stuff that didn’t make any actual sense to her.

Apparently bad footage was something even comic books couldn’t fix. But whatever. It was enough to see by. Enough to tell what was going on. Suddenly she was staring at the inside of the Jupiter Hill Observatory, which was positioned right above the entrance of the hideout. With how loud the noise was, Bethany expected to see Kiel casting explosion spells at the door (for what reason, she wouldn’t know why), or a supervillain using a weapon to break in, or someone doing construction on the wall.

Nope.

It was nothing Bethany had anticipated. A man in a banana suit was standing next to the giant telescope in the room, but he wasn’t paying that any attention. Instead, he was banging his fist on various parts of the wall, as if . . . her eyes grew wider. As if trying to get into _Doc Twilight’s hideout._ But the Rotten Banana had never done that before! The only time he and all the other supervillians had been inside their hideout was when Orion had been taking them in, so they had a place to hide from the Dark.

But that had been almost a full year ago, and it wasn’t like any of them remembered the way, or if they did, they hadn’t tried to get into the hideout. Sure, the Rotten Banana was _sort of_ friends with her, since he was more of a hero than a villain now, but the most she ever saw of him was when they were out on the streets. Orion despised him almost as much as Charm, so their conversations were never that long. To be fair, the banana _had_ insulted her father once, so Bethany wasn’t about to let that slide — even if he had become much friendlier since that day.

Still, that didn’t explain why the Rotten Banana had shown up, uninvited, on the doorstep of their secret observatory. Trying to get inside. It was weird in more ways than one, and Bethany didn’t even think he’d remembered how to get here. The last time he’d been anywhere close to their main hideout had been when the Dark had taken over, and had taken the fight to Doc Twilight’s headquarters.

But he hadn’t even gone inside that hideout. The only other place that _resembled_ their hideout was the safe place Orion had taken Bethany, Gwen, and Charm to when they first came to Jupiter City. But that didn’t really count. After all, she was pretty sure Charm had knocked the Rotten Banana out several times. And Bethany had punched him once, too, so there was that. Either way, it didn’t completely make sense why he’d know where it was, not when he’d never been invited here before.

“What’s _he_ doing here?” Orion grumbled. “I already told him he’s not allowed in here.”

Gwen grabbed Bethany’s arm, using her other hand to point at something on the screen. “Wait, Bethany, look! Who are they?”

All the previous questions floated from Bethany’s head as her eyes followed where Gwen was pointing, landing on three, much smaller figures behind the Rotten Banana. With all her focus on him, she hadn’t even noticed their presence. They were short — short enough that they barely reached the Rotten Banana’s legs. But the even weirder part was that all three of them were wearing banana suits, identical to the Rotten Banana’s, only much smaller.

Orion sighed. “Great. He’s made _clones_ of himself.”

“Aw! Maybe he’s lonely,” Gwen exclaimed, and Bethany couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s take on things.

“So? If anyone’s cloning themselves, it should _not_ be that guy.”

“Uh, I don’t think they’re clones,” Bethany said. “They’re like, _way_ shorter than him.” She nudged Gwen. “Come on, let’s go see what he wants.”

As she and Gwen started walking back to the exit, Orion followed reluctantly behind. He grabbed his Twilight staff from one of the tables, as if he might need it. “Fine, but I’m not talking to him any longer than I need to. If those _are_ clones, he’ll be even more annoying than usual.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Bethany said, waving him off. Beside her, Gwen giggled. She couldn’t help but laugh, too.

They bounded up the stairs, climbing up, up, up, until they reached the brick wall without any doors. From there, Orion pushed on several different bricks, waited for a moment, than repeated the pattern background. There was a grinding noise, and the wall opened up to reveal the observatory, with it’s gigantic telescope pointed directly in their faces. And the Rotten Banana. As the wall opened, the banana gasped, quickly leaping backward in surprise.

Orion just sighed, then pressed a few buttons on a watch that hugged his wrist. “You have one minute. What do you want, banana?”

“So _that’s_ where the entrance is!” the Rotten Banana exclaimed. “I wasn’t expecting the wall to open up like that.”

Bethany stepped forward. “How did you know where our hideout was?”

“Well, I knew it was _somewhere_ in the Jupiter Hill Observatory, but I got a little confused trying to find where to knock—“

Orion snapped his fingers. “Hey, get to the point. You interrupted something very important I’m doing, so you better make this quick.”

Bethany gave him a weird look. “Looking at constellation books is more important?”

Gwen laughed at that, while Orion just glared at her. She pulled her eyes from them, back to the man in the banana suit. “Uh, so why _are_ you here?”

“Thirty seconds!” Orion called out cheerfully.

That seemed to make the Rotten Banana panic more. He bounced from foot to foot. “Well, this may not sound completely _appealing_ to you, which was why I was hoping to find Doc Twilight here. Or at least you, Bethany. Everyone else I know would _split_ before taking on such an opportunity, but . . . I need you to babysit my kids.”

Whatever he’d been about to say, it hadn’t been _that_. Bethany blinked. “Wait, _kids_? You have kids?”

The Rotten Banana nodded, only to pause. “Okay, they’re actually not my kids. I adopted them. You see, they’re going to be my _sidekicks_. Or side _peels_.” He turned around, motioning with his hands, and the three kids Bethany had seen earlier walked up to them, if a bit shyly. “I’m calling them the Banana Peels.”

Bethany stared at them, not sure whether to laugh or just cringe. Now up close, it was clear they couldn’t be clones. Not only were they too short in height, but they also looked nothing like the Rotten Banana. Not that that would make much of a difference. Kiel was a clone himself — a clone of Dr. Verity, someone who, well, looked _and_ acted extremely different from Kiel. Maybe Orion wasn’t so far off, after all. She might actually believe him if the Rotten Banana hadn’t said he adopted them seconds before.

And then the next part sunk into her head, that the Rotten Banana wanted them to babysit his new sidekicks. Or adopted kids, whatever. How did that even work? They looked somewhere in between four and seven years old, but she couldn’t remember how you were supposed to take care of kids that young. To Bethany, it seemed like she’d been taking care of herself since the incident at her fourth birthday party, becoming independent and secretive at a very young age.

She’d been jumping into books as soon as she was able. Like, since she was seven or eight years old. But aside from her own experience as a child, she knew _nothing_ about kids. Did they still wear diapers at that age? Did they sleep for hours upon end or— wait, no, those were babies. At this age, kids were more energetic, if she could guess.

She hadn’t really been the type of kid to play with toys, but she had a feeling these kids were. Unless they were too old for toys? Wait, they didn’t even _have_ toys here, unless a Twilight throwing star could count as one. Or a Twilight staff— _nope_ , too dangerous. Really, those were the closest things Bethany assumed they had to a toy. But she was just grasping at straws, making guesses without any actual idea. She was completely lost on how to even _begin_ imagining how to babysit a single kid, let alone three.

Yep, there was no way they could handle this. Maybe if she was older than twelve, or had more experience with kids, or in general just had more a _childhood_ , the idea of babysitting would come easily to her. Naturally. It might even sound exciting. But it didn’t. She opened her mouth, starting to protest, but Gwen — _wonderful, optimistic,_ Gwen — beat her to it. And unfortunately, that meant the exact opposite response that Bethany was hoping to give.

“That’s so sweet!” Gwen exclaimed. “Of _course_ we’ll babysit them! I’ve never babysat before, but I’m sure between the three of us, we can handle it!”

“ _What_?” Bethany demanded, eyes widening as she turned to her friend.

“Hold on—“ Orion began.

“Uh, on second thought, I don’t know how I feel about _him_ watching over my sidekicks.” The Rotten Banana laughed nervously, extending a finger to point at Orion.

Orion snorted. “Good enough for me. You should probably find someone else to babysit your sidekicks.”

He looked down at the kids, narrowing his eyes, but when all they did was smile up at him, he quickly looked away. Clearly, he was more than uncomfortable by the idea. Bethany had to admit— she felt much of the same way. As an only child, it wasn’t like she had any experience dealing with younger kids. Or talking to them. Or taking care of them. But as much as she _didn’t_ feel like babysitting right now, the idea of turning the Rotten Banana away filled her with guilt. And with Gwen here well . . . maybe, just maybe, it’d be fun.

“No, wait, we’ll do it,” Bethany blurted out, before she could stop herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Gwen smiling at her. Bethany’s heart pounded a little faster, though she had no idea why. Was that why she was doing this? To make Gwen happy? Or was it just for something to do, some way to help the Rotten Banana out, because she’d feel guilty if she didn’t? It was both, she decided. Definitely both.

The Rotten Banana beamed at her. “You will?”

Orion stared at her in disbelief. “We _will_?” 

“Yeah,” Bethany said, inwardly really, _really_ hoping she wouldn’t regret this. “Just because it doesn’t sound like you have any other options, and we don’t really have anything to do anyway.”

“ _Yes!_ ” Gwen cheered, pumping her fist in the air. “This will be _so much fun_! What do you need us to do, Mr. Banana?”

The Rotten Banana filled them in on everything they needed to do for the kids, which to Bethany’s relief, was a lot less than she’d figured. They were all around six and seven, so all that really mattered was feeding them, keeping them entertained, and putting them to bed. Because even though he’d promised to be back before midnight to pick them up, he hadn’t specified _when_ , which was why he’d said that might need to be put to bed before he got here.

And that worried Bethany.

According to the Rotten Banana, their bedtimes were around eight p.m at the latest, even earlier if they were _really_ tired. But she hadn’t been planning to stay at the Twilight Cave _that_ long. What about homework? Okay, fine, it _was_ the weekend. Friday, to be specific. But she already felt guilty telling her mom she’d get the homework done before she went out to fight crime, because that’s what she always promised. Work first, fun second. In other words— school first, crime-fighting second. It was a rule. A _new_ rule.

Now what was she supposed to say if she didn’t get her essay done in time, that she’d been babysitting the Rotten Banana’s kids? That’d be even less believable than saying her dog ate her homework! Now, she’d be babysitting all night. And depending on how this night went, things could either go surprisingly, unexpectedly well, or horribly, _horribly_ bad. And these kids were being raised by the Rotten Banana, so . . . _yeah_ , the second option was sounding more and more likely.

It seemed like ages before the Rotten Banana left, and they were climbing back down the steps to the Twilight Cave, Orion leading the way as the kids _ooh_ ed and _ahh_ ed. Even after Bethany had agreed to watch the Rotten Banana’s sidekicks, Orion had been extremely against taking the kids in, claiming they’d reveal his secret identity, or destroy their trophies, or wreck all their furniture. Finally, he’d given in, but only when the Banana had promised to stop annoying him for the next year.

Bethany smirked at the memory. She had a feeling that promise would be broken _much_ sooner than that.

“So, what do you want to do first?” Gwen asked the kids.

She was holding the hand of one of the girls, the quietest one of the group. None of them had actual names — probably to cover up their real identities, and were referred to as Split #1, #2, and #3. She was really glad her superhero name had been Twilight Girl, and not something horrible, like Kid Twilight #2. If her dad _ever_ considered calling her that . . .

“PIZZA!” the only boy shouted, also known as Split #2.

Orion frowned. “We don’t have pizza—“

“ _Please_!” Split #3 cried, the girl who wasn’t holding Gwen’s hand. “We want pizza!”

“Don’t you guys only eat bananas?” Bethany asked, unable to help herself.

Split #2 nodded, releasing a dramatic sigh. “We’ve been eating tons of them, ever since we got adopted! No fair!”

“You’re right, that _doesn’t_ sound fair!” Gwen said, looking astonished. “I don’t know what pizza is, but we’ll totally get you that! Right, Ori— Kid Twilight?”

Orion only continued facing forward, but Bethany swore she heard him grumble something unintelligible.

As they reached the bottom of the steps, he motioned for the kids to follow him deeper into the cave, already busy warning them of things they _shouldn’t_ touch. The last one to reach the bottom of the steps, Bethany let out a groan. “I _really_ wish we didn’t agree to this.” She’d said it quietly, loud enough just for Gwen to hear.

There was the sensation of her hand being squeezed, and Bethany slowly looked up, meeting her friend’s eyes. Not for the first time that day, butterflies rose in her stomach, so suddenly that she felt like she was dropping off the top of a rollercoaster. But she wasn’t. Gwen was just . . . holding her hand, and it felt unusually good. Different and confusing and strange . . . but good. Like all of Gwen’s excitement was passing from her hand to Bethany’s, and she was hyperaware of it all.

_It’s just excitement_ , Bethany told herself. It had to be. But she couldn’t remember being excited about anything else that’d happened today— not since before it’d started raining. That feeling had only come when Gwen had taken her hand, or smiled at her, or when Bethany had known she’d be doing something that’d make Gwen happy. The actual babysitting part wasn’t what was making her feel this way, right? No, not at all. Not even _close_. Maybe it was—

Gwen gave her a reassuring smile, and the weird, exciting feeling only grew. Only to fade, as she heard her next words. “We’ll be fine! Babysitting can’t be that hard, right?”

___

As it turned out, it _was_ that hard.

Kids weren’t easy to take care of. Bethany knew that. Had even expected it. She’d just hoped that they’d be able to relax at some point, burning off their energy and _not_ acting like they’d just gulped down six cups of a Five-Hour-Energy drink. No such thing happened. It’d been almost three hours since Bethany, Gwen, and Orion had agreed to watch the Rotten Banana’s sidekicks for the afternoon, and things had quickly gone downhill.

The first sign had been when Orion had decided he would rather not do the whole babysitting thing. Only one hour into babysitting (Bethany was honestly surprised he’d lasted so long), Split #2 and #3 had driven him off the wall. While Split #1 had basically been an angel, and had spent the most time with Gwen, the other kids wouldn’t stop pestering Orion about the pizza they wanted. His patience worn out, he’d told Bethany and Gwen they could handle the kids for the rest of the day, and had vanished before Bethany could stop him.

Growing aggravated, she’d tried contacting him over the radio, only to get no response. The radio was completely silent, aside from the loud static that echoed back to her. _Great_. With Orion gone, there was one less person to keep the kids from doing something they shouldn’t, like climbing on the giant Stegosaurus statue, or trying to jump on the enormous joy buzzer that dangled from the ceiling. And that was when the _next_ bad thing happened.

Since the kids seemed to have a seemingly-enormous amount of energy, Bethany decided that maybe, the best way to get them all to settle down was if they played hide-and-seek. The hideout had some _pretty_ good hiding places, which meant the kids would be sitting there for a long time. Enough that maybe, they’d be too worn out to do anything else. Or— that’s what she hoped.

Bethany stood in the center of the Twilight Cave, palms covering her face as she counted loudly to ten. All she could hear was the sound of her own voice— as well as the occasional giggle from the other side of the room, which could’ve been Gwen, for all she knew. The Banana Splits had wanted her to count to hundred, since _apparently_ , that was the best way to play hide-and-seek. She couldn’t really remember playing hide-and-seek as a kid, but _really_? _One hundred?_ Wasn’t it just a count to ten, or twenty, or at least thirty?

Her mind threatened to drift off into other thoughts, almost making her lose her count. She was at seventy-one now. Seventy-two. God, couldn’t she say this any faster? It seemed like the higher she counted, the quieter everything became. There were less laughs. Less shuffling of feet. Just her voice and the barreling rain above, which — despite being underground — practically echoed throughout the room as if the ceiling had cracked open, and a waterfall had poured out, roaring louder than Bethany had ever heard it.

And then finally, she hit one-hundred.

“Ready or not, here I come!” Bethany announced, forcing some enthusiasm into her voice.

Again, the only thing she heard was her voice. Not even a giggle from somewhere nearby. _Huh_. Shaking off the weird feeling, Bethany stormed off to search, slowly breathing in and out in an attempt to channel a sense of calmness. Which wasn’t easy, because while Gwen was — as Bethany expected — having a lot of fun, Bethany was finding it hard to _not_ be annoyed over every little thing. Especially after Orion had ditched them, _and_ after Split #2 had almost accidentally ripped her Twilight Girl cape.

Bethany crept towards the right side of the room first, where three glass cases — the same type that had been in Murray Chase’s basement — sat. Two of them had been there since the first time Bethany had visited Jupiter City: the Doc Twilight and Kid Twilight costumes, except since they were currently being worn, both glass cases were empty. The other was new, with the label _Twilight Girl_ engrained in a gold plaque at the bottom of the case.

The sight always made her heart feel light, and for a moment, she forgot what she was supposed to be doing. Because Bethany hadn’t bothered to change out of her civilian clothes, her costume was still there, looking like it was made for entirely someone else. Someone who’d grown up in this kind of world, which was a possibility that could’ve been very real for Bethany. If her father had never gone missing.

But if she hadn’t, she probably wouldn’t have met all of her friends. Orion, though? She’d probably be stuck with him either way, no matter _which_ path her father had gone on. It still felt a little weird having Orion around, someone she’d despised when she’d first met him, but now had grown to think of him almost as a brother. In a way, maybe Bethany _wasn’t_ hopeless at this babysitting thing, if it was anything like learning to live with someone new. And learning, eventually, that new wasn’t as bad as she thought.

Reaching the glass cases, Bethany started circling around them. She and her best friend, Owen, had hid here once, back in the basement of a comic book artist’s house. If anything, this might be the best (and most obvious) choice of a hiding spot. As she crept around the Kid Twilight case, she spotted the top of someone’s head— black, frizzy curls peeking out from over the case. _She knew it._

Breaking out into a grin, Bethany leapt forward. “Found you!”

Laughter filled the air, both from Bethany’s mouth and the person she found — Gwen. The other girl leapt from her hiding place, tackling the redhead into a hug. “You did it!”

Bethany suddenly became very glad that they were hugging, because for whatever reason, her cheeks were starting to burn. Despite that, though, she hugged Gwen just as tight, honestly wishing that they could just stay there like that, hugging for hours. But since that wasn’t realistic or even the right thing to be doing right now, Bethany pulled away, shaking her head.

“No, not yet,” she replied. “You’re the first one I found. I still have to find the kids.”

“Oh, okay!” Gwen swept her gaze around the large room. “So, where do you think they are?”

Bethany moved her shoulders up and down, shrugging. “I don’t know.” She pointed across the room. “You check that side, I’ll check this side.”

Gwen gave her a thumbs up. That was the last image Bethany saw before she turned back around, heading in the opposite direction of Gwen. Aside from the glass cases, there weren’t too many obvious hiding spots in the cavern. There was the cage in the corner (which was probably meant for criminals that wandered inside), a lot of lab equipment, and large computers that sat either on tables or connected to the walls.

Beyond that, some bookcases and other equipment filled the room, but every time Bethany looked behind them, she saw nothing. No sign of the Rotten Banana’s sidekicks. _Anywhere_. A sinking feeling grew in the bit of her stomach, but she tried to ignore it, forcing herself to keep looking. As the minutes passed, though, she found herself checking the places she’d _already_ checked. Glancing across the room, she spotted Gwen still searching around, but no kids. The feeling in her gut grew, and the realization hit Bethany like a speeding train.

They hadn’t . . . they wouldn’t have . . . _left_ the hideout, would they?

Oh no.

_No, no, no._

They were gone. Somehow, within the time Bethany had started counting and now, the kids had left the hideout, either going somewhere in the Jupiter Hill Observatory, or worse— going outside of it completely. They had been her responsibility! How could she let this happen? And how had the kids gotten out of here, anyway? Had Orion left the door of the secret entrance open? No, he _wouldn’t_ have. All that mattered was that the kids had gotten out, and Bethany had to find them. She had to do something before things became even _more_ out of control.

She rushed back over to Gwen, who looked a little confused, which wasn’t a great sign. Her eyes found Bethany’s, and she let out a breath. “Wow, those kids are _really_ good at hiding!”

“They’re gone,” Bethany choked out.

“Huh?”

Her hands were shaking. Whether it was from worry or fear or a mix of both, she couldn’t tell. She tried to ignore it. Tried to push down her fear, especially in front of Gwen. “I looked everywhere. I don’t think they’re here!”

“Oh, that’s weird. I thought we weren’t allowed to leave the building for hide-and-seek.”

“We weren’t! I told them that!” Her breathing came out more rapidly, her chest rising and falling at a quicker pace. “They’re gone, Gwen. This is _so bad_.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Gwen assured her, and her voice calmed Bethany, just a little. “We’ll find them in no time. They couldn’t have gone far, right?”

“But what if they _did_? What if they went outside or something? Do you know how bad that would be?”

Gwen frowned slightly, contemplating what Bethany had said. Then, her face lit up. “I know! Maybe we can ask your brother for help!”

Bethany started shaking her head over and over. “No. _No_ , we can’t ask him. We can’t. If he finds out, he’ll try to prove his point that we should’ve listened to him, and all of this is my fault.” She paused. “. . . Which it is. _Ugh_! He was right! We should’ve _never_ agreed to this.”

“But we _did_ , and Bethany, you’ve been doing a great job. Even though today didn’t turn out like you thought it would, I’m still _so_ happy we got to do this together.”

“Really?” she whispered. A strange, fuzzy feeling emerged in her stomach, but this time, it wasn’t coming from her nerves. “Even if we didn’t get to do superhero stuff together?”

“Even if we didn’t get to do superhero stuff together.” Gwen smiled at her, and just like that, Bethany found herself smiling back. There was something that made it easy to smile, or be more hopeful, or laugh at her mistakes, when she was around Gwen. Like the feeling was contagious, spreading to her like oxygen flowing into her lungs. So much that for a moment, she felt just a tiny bit better about everything— that is, until they got upstairs.

Just as Bethany had feared, the kids weren’t anywhere in the observatory, either. The only area they could really look was the round room with a domed roof, filled with nothing but computers and a gigantic telescope, which took up majority of the space. Being only one building, the Jupiter Hill Observatory seemed larger on the inside than it looked on the outside. But like inside the Twilight’s hideout, it didn’t offer _too_ many great hiding spots.

It was the last place to look, the last place anywhere close to the hideout. The last place Bethany had _hoped_ to find them, because that meant that at least, Gwen was right, that they couldn’t have gone far. And there was no sign of them. If they’d gone anywhere, it had to be somewhere else. Somewhere in the city. In other words, the Rotten Banana was going to _kill_ Bethany when he found out what happened. Or her dad. Or even Orion. Whoever got here first. 

Pushing open the door, they stumbled out into the rain and skidded down the hill, immediately getting drenched from head-to-toe. Bethany gasped, both from the chill of the rain and the forcefulness of it, since it seemed like it was trying everything it could to push her down. A shudder went through her body, and she instantly regretted not grabbing an umbrella first. But it was too late for that. She was already outside, already soaked through her clothes.

Living in the city for the first time in her life, she’d realized that her dad’s world was . . . loud. Louder than back home, back in the nonfictional world, where life was less chaotic then here. Maybe it was also the fact that they were in the comic book world, but it didn’t seem much different from a real city. Even now, in the heavy rain, the sidewalks were crowded. People rushing to different locations, umbrellas clutched tightly in their hands, and a constant line of cars zipping by, sending puddles airborne.

She squinted through the rain. Scanning the street, she spotted people hurrying by, but none of them were kids, let alone wearing _banana suits_. She held back a groan. So they could be _anywhere_ at this point. Why had she listened to their rules at hide-and-seek? Why had she agreed to count to a hundred? Even if she counted to thirty, she probably could’ve stopped them from leaving. Since there was no sign of them around here, though, their best chance was asking someone nearby.

“Excuse me?” Bethany stopped the nearest person, tapping their sleeve more aggressively than she’d intended. “Hey, have you seen three kids in banana costumes?”

The man just stared at her. “Uh, no?”

“No, sir, you _have_ to tell me!” she shouted. Great, now she was _shouting_. But she couldn’t stop it, not now. “Have you seen them?! _Kids_! In banana costumes! They stand out, okay? Have you _seen them_? _Have you seen_ —“

“Bethany.” Gwen pulled her back. “You’re scaring him!”

“I’m scaring _him?_ He’s seen them! He must’ve seen them!”

“Sorry about my friend,” Gwen said, stepping in front of Bethany. “She’s just having a rough day. We’re just wondering if you have any idea where these kids are. They’re wearing banana costumes.”

“Like I said, no,” the man said, shaking his head. Then he quickly scurried away, flashing a distressed look back at Bethany. The redheaded girl stared after him, then finally looked away, sighing once she saw the look on Gwen’s face.

“You didn’t need to yell at him.”

Bethany only shook her head slightly. “I’m _not_ yelling. I’m just trying to—“ Her eyes landed on a woman walking their way, and she dropped her sentence entirely, catching up to her. “Hey, have you seen three kids in banana costumes?”

“No, sorry,” the woman said, looking more apologetic — but no more interested — than the man had.

This time, Bethany let it go. If she didn’t know, maybe someone else did. But that might’ve been wishful thinking. They went from person to person, asking if they’d seen the kids. But no one had an answer. Not _one_ person. The closest anyone got was telling them they’d seen the Rotten Banana recently, but not his sidekicks. At this point, Bethany was starting to regret not asking Orion for help. Maybe _he’d_ be better at searching for them, but she wasn’t ready to admit that. Not yet.

“Let’s look down this next street,” Gwen suggested as they turned the corner, their shoes squeaking loudly against the concrete. “I _think_ we’ll find them, here. We’re getting close!”

She’d said that about every street they’d searched. So far, they’d walked maybe five blocks, which had taken longer than normal since they’d stopped to talk to every person they saw. It was quickly becoming exhausting, not that that dulled Bethany’s panic at all. Really, it was even _higher_ than before. If she couldn’t keep track of these kids, what _else_ did that mean? That she was bad with kids? That she wasn’t good at taking care of other people?

Well, that’d always been true. From early on, Bethany had become very good at taking care of herself. But when it came to caring, she cared _so much_. About her father, mostly. About finding him. And her mother, of course, to make her happy again someday. Later, all of that caring had expanded to her friends. She’d _hate_ it if they got hurt because of something she did. But just because she cared, just because she _wanted_ to protect the people she loved maybe just . . . didn’t mean she was good at it.

Bethany barely nodded. Her feet slowed down, stopping her in her tracks. “This is _all my fault_ ,” she whispered. “If I hadn’t suggested we play hide and seek, they never would’ve ran away!”

Gwen’s hand found its way to her shoulder. “No, none of this is your fault, Bethany. We’ll find them.”

“But it’ll take forever! How are we supposed to find where they are before the Rotten Banana comes back? This city is _huge_ , Gwen!” Her voice rose, panic seeping into it again. “They could be _anywhere_! They could get hurt somehow, or accidentally get hit by a car or—“

Gwen’s eyes became wider. “Whoa, okay, breathe,” she said, her other hand reaching up to squeeze Bethany’s left shoulder. Unconsciously, she leaned into Gwen’s touch, like it was the only thing keeping her steady. “Just breathe. It’ll be okay! Let’s try to guess where they went, and maybe they’ll be there.”

Yeah, they could do that _._ Just guess _._ The only thing was, she had no _idea_ where they could’ve gone. To three kids running around in Jupiter City, this place would look insanely cool, especially if it wasn’t raining. There was always _so much_ to see, whether it was superheroes flying from above or battles to witness. The people here were never bored, and even though a lot of it was _way_ too cliche for Bethany’s taste, she could tell why Owen was fascinated by it.

There was always something exciting happening in the city. And that was what kids liked, right? Things that excited them? Bethany mulled over this, taking deep breaths to calm herself. One thing she knew was that kids kind of just . . . acted on impulse. They blurted out the first thing that came to their heads, or they ran to something that caught their eye. The only thing was, Bethany wasn’t sure _what_. What would have interested them enough to leave the hideout?

And then she saw it, standing before them. It shouldn’t have been anything too noticeable, but what hit her first was the smell. Even through the storm, it managed to reach her, a sweet aroma of freshly-baked bread and pasta and pizza, of all Italian foods imaginable, blended together in— wait. _Pizza_. There was something strangely familiar about that. Hadn’t someone mentioned something earlier, about getting pizza? But Orion had quickly shot the idea down, because—

Because the kids had wanted it. They’d wanted pizza. And of all the possibilities of where the kids could’ve gone, this seemed like the most obvious choice. Suddenly, she became very glad the kids had even mentioned wanting pizza — and at the _wrong_ moment, or maybe the right one. Because if hide-and-seek had come around and there’d been no hints of where to find them, Bethany would’ve been lost, and forced to go to Orion for help. Or worse, her _father_. Roping him into this was the last thing she wanted.

She just really, _really_ hoped she was right about this.

“Gwen!” Bethany said, raising her voice to be heard about the storm. She lifted a hand, using it to wipe the wet hair from where it stuck to her forehead. “I think I know where they are!”

Her friend grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah, maybe. Come on!”

They set off running, reaching the pizza shop in just a few strides. Before they went in, Bethany skidded to a stop, scanning the glass window that showed the inside of the pizza shop. The window was fogged up from the rain, but even then, she could see enough. Apparently a lot of people wanted to get pizza, because the shop was practically brimming with activity, with people either flooding the tables or standing in the long line.

And among the people in that line were three kids in banana suits.

“It’s them!” Gwen chimed excitedly, and Bethany didn’t need any further confirmation— she was already yanking open the door and throwing herself inside. At their entrance, everyone stared. She must’ve looked crazy, with everything from her hair to her shoes completely soaked. In comparison, everyone else looked dry, aside from their dripping umbrellas. Not that she cared.

“ _You_!” Bethany said, stomping over to the kids. They stared up at her, jaws dropped. “What were you _thinking_? Do you know how long we were looking for you?! Did you think it was okay to come all the way over here without telling us where you were going?”

“Yeah, we were really worried about you!” Gwen added, her tone no less concerned than Bethany’s, but without any of the anger. “I’m _so_ glad to see you’re okay.”

“Sorry we scared you!” Split #1 spoke up, not quite meeting either of their eyes.

Split #3 shuffled his feet. “Yeah, we thought by the time you got to one-hundred, we’d already be back with the pizza.” He offered them a grin, showing two-missing front teeth. “But line’s too long!”

Slowly, Bethany felt the stress seeping out of her. “Oh. You . . . you were coming right back?”

“Uh-huh!”

“So you knew how to get back to the observatory?”

“Yeah!” Split #2 exclaimed. “The white building with the domed roof! On a _big_ hill!” She giggled. “We couldn’t miss it.”

“See?” Gwen said. “I _knew_ things would work out. And even if we hadn’t gone searching for them, they still would’ve come back!”

“But . . .” Bethany started to say, then shook her head, deciding against it. “You _still_ should’ve told us where you were going.” A small smile slipped onto her face. “Because maybe afterwards, we could’ve all gotten pizza. _Together_. And maybe _without_ having to walk in the rain.”

At her response, identical smiles grew on the kids’ faces. It took Bethany a second to realize that she must’ve said something right, which usually was more of Gwen’s thing, especially with kids. Or with people in general. With how the afternoon was going, Bethany thought she was terrible at this babysitting thing. _Believed_ it. There were so many things that could go wrong, but at the same time, she’d learned that there was so much _to_ learn. And so much that could go _right_.

Since they were halfway in line, the five of them waited the rest of the way, conversing to pass the time. Although it took awhile to reach the counter, not to mention decide on their order and have the workers prepare their food, the time seemed to slide by quickly. Maybe it was the stress of it all fading away, or because the kids were less difficult to deal with than they had been earlier, but Bethany found herself having more fun. Just enjoying herself, talking to the kids and to Gwen. For the first time all day, things felt easy.

Maybe thirty minutes since they’d entered the shop, a fresh pizza sat in Gwen’s hands, the aroma wafting out of the cardboard box and into their noses. On their way out the door, Bethany felt soft fingers threading through her’s. Her heart did a little jump, and she glanced down, surprised, to see Split #3 holding her hand. He let out a yawn. “Can we go home now?”

“Yeah.” Bethany smiled down at him. She caught Gwen’s eye, and her smile only grew. Despite the downpour outside, waiting to drench them, despite the ups-and-downs this afternoon had brought, despite all the issues, she had a good feeling about this.

“Let’s go home.”


End file.
